So whoops, I took a three month sabbatical from writing on my blog…. I thought about updating it, in fact I went as far as to log in (numerous times) and then I got distracted changing my background and font colors, yet the words never made it from my brain to the page… countless apologies.
I have put Dec. and Jan up, Feb and March will make their way here fashionably late obviously.
Friday, March 13, 2009
NYE IN NYC 2009
And this one should have been posted in Jan....
NEW YEARS EVE IN TIMES SQUARE IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, ENTERTAINGING, WILD, FREEZING COLD, HILARIOUS THING I HAVE EVER DONE.
Colin (my brother) and our friends Liza, Laurel and Matt and I drove down from Vermont the night before new years eve. Our voyage was fairly typical: music, Doritos, back seat dance parties and hilarious comments made by Matt.
Colin (my brother) and our friends Liza, Laurel and Matt and I drove down from Vermont the night before new years eve. Our voyage was fairly typical: music, Doritos, back seat dance parties and hilarious comments made by Matt.
Liza, Myself, Laurel: trying to entertain ourselves on the treck down to NYC
As we were about an hour outside of the Bronx I told Matt, who is one of the funniest borderline inappropriate guys I know, that although I love the Bronx and I feel very safe there, I try to attract the least amount of attention to myself…I.E. watch what you say and do, we already stick out because we are a large group of white kids.
No sooner did he agree when our car literally stopped working..
- no lights
- no power
- no steering
We coasted onto the “side” of the road and by side I mean half way still in a lane and naturally I began freaking out. Keep in mind it was about 9pm and pitch dark outside, cars could not see us until they literally were ON TOP of our car…
“AHHHHH THE TRUCKS ARE GOING TO HIT US!” “OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING ON” “WHAT THE @#%@(*#& DO WE DO?!?”
Obviously at this point in time Liza and Laurel are fearing for their lives as 18 wheeler trucks are rapidly approaching us and Colin and Matt are laughing and taking pictures instead of finding flairs…. I finally get a hold of the ever popular New York City 911 who after trying to convince me that police did not in fact need to come help us finally gave up and reassured me police assistance is on their way. (For the record they conveniently never showed up)
We finally got a hold of some random AAA man, Peter, who after a lot of typical eyelash batting, pleading and pouting agreed to give us a ride back to my apartment (25 minutes away) before towing the car to a local shop. His only stipulation: “da ladies ride up front in da cab wit him…wink wink”. Predictable man...
Liza, Laurel and I sitting in Perv Pete's cab waiting for his fateful return ahhh
After agreeing to his conditions I realized Colin and Matt didn’t have seats and there was no way the two of them were going to squeeze into the already awkwardly tight cab. AAA man, or Perv Pete as I fondly refer to him told them to hop in our car and the next thing I knew I looked behind me and they were getting pulled up onto the bed of the tow truck and off we went.
Colin and Matt getting towed up the back of the tow truck, one of the most annoying, yet outrageously hilarious events ever
I don’t think I took an actual breath the entire ride home, I was between praying that the car would not fall off the Tappan Zee bridge and kill the boys, yelling at Pervy Pete to slow down, and reassuring my mother that things were totally fine.
As we pulled onto Andrews Ave with our lights flashing, the boys bouncing around in the car taking pictures, every single one of my neighbors seemed to be outside watching us. The brilliant Matt leaned over and direct quote “Hey Meghan, we don’t wanna call attention to ourselves right?” I died, I literally was mortified.
Long story short, Pete found us a station opened late, they changed our battery and life was good.
The next morning we ventured down to Times Square
Colin, Matt, Laurel, Liza and I infront of where the ball drops 
As you can see... we were there 8 hours and 42 minutes before the ball officially dropped.
This is the exact time we got to Times Square, only 8hours and 42 seconds of waiting!Although it was the coldest, most bone chilling, and longest 9 hours of my life I have never had so much fun. We were lucky enough to get into this gated off area right in front of ABC studios so we had a prime viewing area.
The 2009 New Years Ball 
We packed “dinner” PB & J sammies (pictured below), crackers, granola bars etc. to snack on and just laughed and danced the night away. 
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve hosted by stupid Ryan Seacrest who I can’t stand played some decent music.
We began talking to everyone around us and met a group of wonderful 20 somethings from PA. One of them, who was the sweetest guy I have ever met was talking about how he had a list of 35 things to do before turning 35 and New Years Eve in NYC was one of them, inspirational.
Somehow and I really honest to God have no idea how, we made it to the front of the crowd holding on to the barricade they had set in place. Now, I’ll try to be modest but I swear weird/interesting things always seem to seek me out… I was standing singing and dancing with the rest of the crowd when some camera guy came up and asked me if I wanted to be interviewed. OBVIOUSLY I said yes – he said we had to come up with an answer to the question: “what is a new years resolution you made knowing you are going to BREAK IT” some suggested I say biting my nails and someone suggested I say passing gas in public and then look at the large crowd – I vetoed both ideas!
Eventually Kelly Pickler some platinum blonde American Idol came over asked me the question and out of my mouth came the random answer “I’ll stop poking people on facebook” – which we all know I will never do. After my 5 seconds of fame and her awkwardly poking me with her finger shouting poke poke poke I went back to dancing. I checked my phone and I literally received 92 text messages saying people had seen me. Among them were two from my mom “ MEG I SAW YOU!!!” and then followed by that “PUT YOUR GLOVES ON!” woman never stops being my mom no matter how old I am J
59, 58, 57... And then 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…
HAPPPPPPPPPY NEEEEEEWWWWW YEAAAAAAAR 2009, immense amounts of confetti, balloons, champagne and legit kisses from EVERYONE AROUND US!
The aftermath...
New Years Eve in NYC is something I have always wanted to do and I was lucky enough to participate with my friends and my brother, have an apartment to stay in and a glorious camera to capture it all!
On a scale of 1-10 this night was like a 50!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
He who has not found Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree
So this should have been posted in December...
I was lucky enough to have four Christmas celebrations: One with my community, one with the Priests next door, one at home in Vermont and one at Siena House.
Christmas next door with the priests was short and very sweet – we had a delicious dinner all together with fancy china, candles and beautiful music. We helped them decorate their (real) Christmas tree… I got ‘yelled’ at for breaking a glass ball, but Father Joe assured me that breaking a decoration was obviously a sign of good luck. His sarcastic nature leads me to believe he was harassing me, but ill take it for what it was worth. Although our Christmas celebration with the Priests was short it was wonderful to sit in company with them. Talking about their memories of childhood Christmas traditions and fond experiences. We cut out 30 snowflakes out of white paper both large and small and hung them around their dining room as a surprise from Jack Frost. The men literally could not stop talking about how crafty, creative and mostly thoughtful the simple act was. We did it to spice up their lives, through a little womanly touch into their community of all males; they saw it as a miracle. The snowflakes are still hanging to date (middle of March) and they constantly refer to their beauty, simplicity and how thoughtful we were, meanwhile we were being silly bored girls cutting shapes out of paper. Its sweet to see how such a small gesture can go such a long long way.
Christmas in our community was held the very last night in the Bronx before we all flew to our respective home states. We had a miniature fake Christmas tree in our hallway closet that we decorated with small glass bulbs. Katie took wrapping paper and wrapped the pictures that we have hanging in our communal spaces – Kendra and Andrea hung Christmas lights throughout the front room and I cut an Angel out of paper for the top of our tree (she was African American and quite beautiful if I do say so myself). We all made and hung Christmas stockings in the kitchen and we cut out hundreds of snowflakes out of white paper and hung them from the ceiling.
“Christmas Eve” we sat around our teeny little Christmas tree and exchanged gifts, nothing big, nothing expensive, mostly enjoying the presence of each other. We braved the snowy unplowed roads and took each other out to dinner. I have always had wonderful friends, and we have each had wonderful traditions, but sitting beneath our silly Christmas tree throwing nerf balls at each oher (Andreas gift to the community to encourage us to play more) I really realized how blessed I am to have these girls and this community.
Christmas in Vermont was magnificent as always! It was filled with love and joy and family and snow, the four things I wanted. Colin was back from Montana and we spent time just hanging out. Its great to be at an age where we can be not only siblings but friends. We spent Christmas Eve night at Evans house (our 10 year old cousin). We went to church as a family and I really finally found its significance in my life. The church community was so welcoming and so loving, extending a hand in friendship, a hug in homecoming and love for all. I felt at peace knowing that although I love my job in the Bronx and I love my roommates, I have a wonderful support network back home. We went back to Evans house to prepare for Santa’s arrival- set out cookies, milk, and candy canes for him and carrots and a large bucket of water on the front steps for the reindeer.
We were awakened very early to open our stockings and marvel at the gifts that Santa had left, as well as the chewed up carrots and empty bucket from the reindeer. The rest of our day was relaxed and we really just took time to enjoy the company of family. The best gift I received with Tim agreeing to officially adopt me. It’s a simple procedure considering im 23 years old, but it is something I have wanted and a role he has played for a long time. I am honored to call him Dad and to be a part of his family <3>
I was lucky enough to have four Christmas celebrations: One with my community, one with the Priests next door, one at home in Vermont and one at Siena House.
Christmas next door with the priests was short and very sweet – we had a delicious dinner all together with fancy china, candles and beautiful music. We helped them decorate their (real) Christmas tree… I got ‘yelled’ at for breaking a glass ball, but Father Joe assured me that breaking a decoration was obviously a sign of good luck. His sarcastic nature leads me to believe he was harassing me, but ill take it for what it was worth. Although our Christmas celebration with the Priests was short it was wonderful to sit in company with them. Talking about their memories of childhood Christmas traditions and fond experiences. We cut out 30 snowflakes out of white paper both large and small and hung them around their dining room as a surprise from Jack Frost. The men literally could not stop talking about how crafty, creative and mostly thoughtful the simple act was. We did it to spice up their lives, through a little womanly touch into their community of all males; they saw it as a miracle. The snowflakes are still hanging to date (middle of March) and they constantly refer to their beauty, simplicity and how thoughtful we were, meanwhile we were being silly bored girls cutting shapes out of paper. Its sweet to see how such a small gesture can go such a long long way.
Christmas in our community was held the very last night in the Bronx before we all flew to our respective home states. We had a miniature fake Christmas tree in our hallway closet that we decorated with small glass bulbs. Katie took wrapping paper and wrapped the pictures that we have hanging in our communal spaces – Kendra and Andrea hung Christmas lights throughout the front room and I cut an Angel out of paper for the top of our tree (she was African American and quite beautiful if I do say so myself). We all made and hung Christmas stockings in the kitchen and we cut out hundreds of snowflakes out of white paper and hung them from the ceiling.
“Christmas Eve” we sat around our teeny little Christmas tree and exchanged gifts, nothing big, nothing expensive, mostly enjoying the presence of each other. We braved the snowy unplowed roads and took each other out to dinner. I have always had wonderful friends, and we have each had wonderful traditions, but sitting beneath our silly Christmas tree throwing nerf balls at each oher (Andreas gift to the community to encourage us to play more) I really realized how blessed I am to have these girls and this community.
Christmas in Vermont was magnificent as always! It was filled with love and joy and family and snow, the four things I wanted. Colin was back from Montana and we spent time just hanging out. Its great to be at an age where we can be not only siblings but friends. We spent Christmas Eve night at Evans house (our 10 year old cousin). We went to church as a family and I really finally found its significance in my life. The church community was so welcoming and so loving, extending a hand in friendship, a hug in homecoming and love for all. I felt at peace knowing that although I love my job in the Bronx and I love my roommates, I have a wonderful support network back home. We went back to Evans house to prepare for Santa’s arrival- set out cookies, milk, and candy canes for him and carrots and a large bucket of water on the front steps for the reindeer.
We were awakened very early to open our stockings and marvel at the gifts that Santa had left, as well as the chewed up carrots and empty bucket from the reindeer. The rest of our day was relaxed and we really just took time to enjoy the company of family. The best gift I received with Tim agreeing to officially adopt me. It’s a simple procedure considering im 23 years old, but it is something I have wanted and a role he has played for a long time. I am honored to call him Dad and to be a part of his family <3>
The tags I made for each of the Christmas bags, if nothing else this year I have learned I have a talent for working with construction paper and glue sticks :)
The Lounge where we sorted all the gifts for each mother and child...
I have never felt so good about watching individuals open Christmas presents, the generosity of the individuals giving gifts was inspiring. They got everything from umbrellas, slippers, robes, $50 cash, jewelry, make-up, body spray, clothing, hats, mittens, scarves, and I cant even being to explain the children’s toys – books, games, light up thingy’s, puzzles, stuffed animals, noise makers, sing song battery operated wildly loud gidgets and gadgets.
Yes the women were blessed with gifts and yes materially speaking the overabundance of gifts was so impressive, but I learned so much more than the warm feeling of giving a gift. One of the newer women looked at me, tears in her eyes and said "I feel loved, I have found the meaning of Christmas and I found it in your heart." In the middle of me telling her that we all worked hard on giving them each gifts we knew they would appreciate and like she stopped me and said... "the best gift I got this year was love"
He who has not found Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree...
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